Where saving and spending live together in peace and harmony, hopefully…

Just like preventive care is the best way to stay healthy and avoid outrageous medical bills, a clean face keeps most facial problems at bay and saves tons of money on beauty products. Yes, the best way to lower the skincare and beauty expenses: a thoroughly cleaned face.

It is quite a chore to make sure my kids wash their face twice a day. They don’t understand why they need to do so. When I say because their faces are dirty, they stick their lovely little chubby faces right in front of my eyes and ask “where, where, where is the dirt, mommy?” At that moment, I could not resist but to kiss them. To show them what will happen if they don’t wash their faces, I googled and found some photos that scared them to the bathroom sink. For interested readers or moms in need of sending their kids to wash their faces, please click here or here. (Warning! Do not click during your mealtime).

While my kids can wash their faces with just water (once a week with soap), their mom, who wears makeup daily, needs a much more aggressive and complicated face cleaning routine. So complicated that even needs a long blog post to explain.

Step 1: Remove makeup thoroughly

On a heavy makeup day, I use DHC cleansing oil to remove all the residuals of cosmetics or dirt.
How to use: Use dry hands to massage the oil onto your dry face (for about 30 seconds). Then pat some luckwarm water on your face and let the oil transform into a milky layer. Luckwarm water is important as it is the better for the oil to dissolve than hot or cold water. Continue using the luckwarm water to thoroughly wash your face.

On most days when I wear light makeup, I use Clinique’s Take the Day Off Cleansing Balm. I love this as a daily makeup remover. It is gentle enough for eye areas as well. I used to buy the well-rated eye makeup remover from Lancome. While I liked the Lancome product, there is a lack of efficiency, i.e., I need to remove the makeup separately for eye areas and for the face. So it was an easy switch for me to the Clinique cleansing balm which can do both jobs in one session of massage.
How to use: scoop out a small portion and massage it onto your dry face with dry hands. The balm transforms into a layer of silky oil. Continue massaging until the oil is evenly distributed on your face. Use luckwarm water to clean thoroughly.

Step 2: Wash face again with a facial cleanser.

To remove any remaining makeup oil or dirt, I use a foam cleanser to clean my face one more time. Selecting the right foam cleanser is tricky. If not selected right, a foam cleanser can be too drying. After many years of running a cleansing laboratory in our bathroom, I have found the following two cleansers work the best for me:

The prices are drastically different. I guess my conflicting preferences (saving and luxury) show up everywhere. Both are very gentle and does not dry my skin.

How to use: Instead of applying them directly to my skin, I first squeeze them to a sponge square and then use the sponge square to generate a lot of foam. Then I apply just the foam to my face. This is less harsh to the face and the foam does a better job cleaning the pores. I make the sponge squares myself by cutting a normal dish cleaning sponge to four pieces.

Step 3: Tone my face with a toner

I never understand why we need to use a toner and what is the right way to use it. So I just use it for a third round of cleaning. It nicely removes any remaining particles, especially the ones along my hairline and in the back of my neck. The toner I love is the Thayers Alcohol-free Rose Petal Witch Hazel with Aloe Vera.

How to use: Apply a few drops of the toner to a DHC Silky cotton square (shown below). Then use the square to carefully and gently wipe my whole face and neck area, especially along the hairline and the back of my neck. This cotton square is the best I have ever used. Feels so silky and does not shred at all!

After these three steps, my face is thoroughly cleaned and ready for its nutrition: skincare routine will be covered in another post.

Addendum:

Set up a routine is always easy. Stick to it was much harder. After a few years, this routine finally becomes a habit of mine. Having a clean face without many issues is the best reward that keeps me going.

How do you clean your face? Any special procedure or product that works great for you? Love to hear your story.

I used the Lancôme Cleanser as well quite a while.
On normal makeup days I use Crealine for Dry Skin from Bioderma to remove everything with a cotton pad. On heavy makeup days I use the cleansing oil from Tata Harper- same process as with your oil cleanser.
Then I use a cream cleanser (Tata Harper or Martina Gebhardt) with a Konjac Sponge.
Next step is Toner (Martina Gebhardt), but I spray it on the face, and as long as the face is still wet I massage some drops of Rosehip Oil from Pai into the skin.
Once a week I use the Clarisonic Mia with the enzyme peeling from Dermalogica followed by a mask (Dr. Hauschka, Pai, whatever…)
It reads like a lot of work, but to me it’s like brushing my teeth 🙂

Thank you so much for the detailed information. I am very tempted to try these all natural products. While I go for organic food items whenever possible, I have not been very careful with beauty products. After I am done with my current stock, I will try them. I love trying new skincare products.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I love your blog. I have been following the routine described in this post in the past two years and have had almost zero acne problems. I just wish keeping wrinkles away is as easy as keeping pimples away. 🙂

I just found your blog via Feather Factor, and I will subscribe via Bloglovin because I share your values. Thank you for your blog!

Since I started eating only whole foods (organic vegetables & grass-fed meats, organic fruits sparingly, no grains, see MarksDailyApple.com) and using only good oils to clean and maintain my face (excellent ones reviewed by MinimalBeauty.com), and wearing organic cosmetics (RMS un-powder, Honeybee Gardens mascara, and all else Vapour), and seeing conventionally-trained turned holistic physicians, lovely things have happened to me and my life:
1. my beauty budget is 1/4 of what it used to be using conventional beauty products,
2. my skin looks better than it has ever in my life (people constantly tell me I look 15 years or more younger than my age),
3. my combined food-, beauty-, medical-care budgets are 1/3 lower than in any of the previous 5 years–yes, that’s 2/3 less than what I used to spend in any previous year using conventional food and medical care,
4. I feel better, feel happier, feel calmer & far less-stressed, and am more active than ever before in my life,
5. the food I eat is far, far more delicious than the conventional SAD food (Standard American Diet) I used to eat.
6. I have Lots more money to invest, save, and spend in order to live the life I want to live.

These changes work extremely well for me, and I highly recommend them to everyone interested in living a higher quality life. Thanks again for your thoughtful blog!

Thank you so much for stopping by, Glenda! I am thrilled to have another like-minded person coming to my blog. Even though I have only started blogging for two months, I already questioned myself several times for why I want to add another responsibility to my already pretty occupied schedule. You just gave me another reason to continue.

And thank you for the detailed recommendations. We also mostly live on whole foods. However, I have not been very careful for my skincare products. Based on the recommendations from you and deradenise, I have decided to try organic skincare and cosmetic products after I am done with my current stock. Cannot wait! I will update my progress on the blog.

And yes, a high quality life does not necessarily come with a high cost. We just need to be smart and informed to make the right choices. Be healthy, happy, fabulous, and most importantly, love ourselves the best way we can! I wish I could be as well read as you. I love reading, but have not been able to read many non-work related books. I will be visiting your site to get book ideas. Thanks again!

I’m amazed with what you’ve done on this blog in two months, so much more relevant and in-depth content than you find on some blogs in an entire year… I just found your blog today, have read through most of it already, and have recommended it to others. I hope you keep on blogging, this is great stuff! =D

P.S. The blog I referred to above about oils and other organic beauty is MinimalistBeauty.com–sorry I wrote it wrong above.